G. Tolley

Chapter 106 – Life 62, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

The next morning, we were woken up early and marched outside.

Each of us was given different chores. I was led to a kitchen where I was forced into hard labor scrubbing pots and pans for the entire day. I didn’t get back until late in the evening.

When I returned, my three roommates were just sitting around playing cards and having fun. This slightly bothered me because I knew we ...

Chapter 105 – Life 62, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

After Old Pei left, I didn’t stay alone in his house for long. I didn’t know what his story was. His demeanor, the way he acted, it made me want to help him. His kindness to me made me want to help him. I just didn’t know what I could do for him.

I could take him away from this place and let him live a life of luxury for what years he had remaining, but would he even want that? Woul...

Chapter 104 – Life 62, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

I appeared in a dirty alley. After taking a quick look around, I headed in the direction that sounded the noisiest. The ally opened onto a street that felt very familiar. Old women were selling vegetables from blankets lying on the ground, and busy men and women could be seen everywhere, hauling boxes and guiding wagons. It looked a lot like the place where I always appeared in Dragon Gate City...

Chapter 103 – Life 62, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

Upon death, memories of my past lives were stored in my soul. As time passed, they would slowly be pushed further down, causing me to not think too deeply about them unless I actively sought to recall something. 

Sitting in my tiny shack in the Su Clan, I focused on the memories from the life that just ended and did everything I could to keep them from fading. I needed to understand ...

Chapter 102 – Life 61, Age 45, Martial Lord Peak

I wasn’t sure what my trip to the Brilliant Sun Empire would entail, so I made thorough preparations beforehand. I needed to stock my storage space well just in case the journey proved to be fatal.

Pill Emperor Li had left me with three items. A book, a box, and a coin. The first two were too large to keep, but the coin was by far the most important to me anyway. I didn’t know what it...

Chapter 101 – Life 61, Age 43, Martial Lord Peak

My thoughts remained focused on my work during the year following Mei's death.

Any time my riven mind drifted to Mei’s death, my entire being would freeze as the thoughts of my body and the feelings of my soul warred against each other.

I knew her death was caused by her blessing working to manipulate me in future lives. I just didn’t understand what its goal was. I knew it was ...

Chapter 100 – Life 61, Age 38, Martial Lord 5

Even though problems arose because of the events at the Thunder Groom Selection, Minister Jin still insisted that I attend the Fire Flower Blossoming the following year. She was willing to concede that the associated social gatherings were optional, but she was firm in her stance that I needed to attend the actual competitions themselves if at all possible. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I a...

Chapter 99 – Life 61, Age 37, Martial Lord 3

During my reign as city lord, I had set three main objectives for myself. The first was to reach Martial Lord Peak so that I would have access to as many credits as possible in the event of my death. The second was to master the skills of a Pill Lord to the best of my ability. The third was to find novel means of boosting a domain’s karmic energy production in ways the Brilliant Sun Empire wo...

Chapter 98 – Life 61, Age 37, Martial Lord 3

Note: There is a longer note about this on the Discord server, but I want to add it here so everyone will see it. I've read a lot of comments about how it feels like Fang is just going through the motions this life, waiting for it to end. That was not my intention, and I am actively working to fix it in rewrites.

He is working hard to try to find a way to get the spatial fire seed at any ...

Chapter 97 – Life 61, Age 37, Martial Lord 2

Demon beast manure turned out to not be nearly as useful as I had hoped, and I had no idea how it could be used in herbalism. When I looked at it in qi vision, all I could see was a large pile of toxic energy. Herbalists must have some way to utilize energies that alchemists couldn’t, or maybe it would be better to say, energies that I couldn’t. Either way, my research into trying to use ma...

Chapter 96 – Life 61, Age 36, Martial Lord 1

With a steady supply of herbs arranged, I returned to the life of a recluse. Technically, as city lord, I did have official duties to attend to, but from what I could tell, my ministers were more than happy for me to leave them alone and not do anything that would create more work.

As a kingdom of cultivators, Rulers delegating away all of the ruling so they could seclude themselves for y...

Chapter 95 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Lord 1

After ascending to Martial Lord and stabilizing my new realm, I immediately switched my attention to advancing my alchemy skills. There were other things that needed my attention.  For instance, while the factory was operational, it still needed work. But for me, everything outside of alchemy was unimportant. 

I settled into a cultivation room within the City Lord’s Complex an...

Chapter 94 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

With my ministers taking care of all the small details regarding distributing and selling the pills, all I had to worry about was being able to produce them. While the first production line was relatively successful, the goal was to have five complete production lines for making Nutrition Pills, and that required far more than just five times the work.

Installing so many different formati...

Chapter 93 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The first sight of my new factory left me standing with my mouth agape. I’d been told that it was ready to begin installing the formations, and I had assumed that meant the building was complete. Instead, what I saw could only be called a building if I was being generous. In reality, it was little more than a shell.

The island expansion was still underway, and only the area that was nee...

Chapter 92 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Upon returning to the island, my first stop was the Blue Wind Pavilion. The services offered in local Pavilion branches were generally more limited than in the capital, but since North Lake City was home to so many of the kingdom’s craftsmen, it had a robust system to serve the various tradesmen.

“Hello, sir. How may I help you today?” asked an attendant as I entered.

I felt s...

Chapter 91 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

While the Ouyang clan maintained a residence in the city proper, their main holdings were in the surrounding territory. The complex I needed to visit was located on the east side of North Lake where the foothills of the northeastern mountains began.

This area had a very diverse ecosystem. There was access to the water resources of the lake, open plains in the south, densely forested footh...

Chapter 90 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The Hu clan eagerly took over the task of researching and improving my automated alchemy factory design. Our agreement was simple. They would provide the formation expertise, and I would support them with my alchemy knowledge. At the end of the project, a comprehensive manual would be produced to explain everything we created, and we would each get a copy to use as we pleased.

While I had...

Chapter 89 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After everything was settled with Minister Jin, I once more became engrossed in designing an alchemy factory. The idea of making the entire first floor a kind of warehouse had benefits, but it also necessitated changes and extra formations to help move goods from one area to another.

I had just been appointed as the new city lord, so maybe I should have been more concerned about my new du...

Chapter 88 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After I dismissed everyone, I was ready to get to work finalizing the details for the building and formations I needed, but I was stopped by the Minister of Rites.

“Lord, regarding tomorrow’s ceremony, there is an issue we must discuss.”

“Yes? What is it?” I asked. I tried to present a calm façade, but I didn’t care about the normal rituals of office. I wanted to focus ...

Chapter 87 – Life 61, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After the competition, I was not taken to meet with Mei. Instead, I was whisked away to a small room near the top of the amphitheater for a private audience with the Eight Flower King. When I walked in, I saw a powerfully built man with raven black hair and a short, tidy beard wearing an elaborate robe of reds and golds.

“Your majesty,” I said, giving the man a deep bow that took my t...

Chapter 86 – Life 61, Age 27, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After returning to my workshop, the first thing I did was switch out my spirit fire. I wanted to keep it for future runs, but the box it was stored in was too large to take with me, so that wouldn’t be possible.

Early on, I had trapped a portion of Cold Mountain Fire in my body as a smokescreen for when I concocted pills in front of people so that they wouldn’t know about my fire seed...

Chapter 85 – Life 61, Age 27, Martial Grandmaster Peak

I entrusted Manager Bai with handling any requests that came in from these new potential clients. In truth, I didn’t count on gaining anything from them. While they may have specialties in areas where I was lacking, if they were poised to make an offer as generous as the Hu Clan, they wouldn’t have ignored me for several years.

She gave me notes on some of the offers available, but wh...

Chapter 84 – Life 61, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster Peak

While most of the clans and groups that had initially shown interest in working with me had backed off, the Hu family was eager for a partnership. I met with Instructor Hu in one of the Pavilion conference rooms to discuss the details.

“The Hu Clan elders are willing to work with you and teach you all our knowledge of formations. I can promise that we will not hold anything back,” sai...

Chapter 83 – Life 61, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster Peak

While I was studying in an alchemy workshop the next day, LiPin came to see me. Steward Mao had returned, and he was ready to make a deal.

“Alchemist Su, good to see you again,” he bowed to me as I entered the conference room.

“Steward Mao,” I nodded, “I hear you have a deal ready for me.”

“Yes,” he winced slightly. “The Mao Clan elders have decided to accept...

Chapter 82 – Life 61, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster Peak

I spent the next several weeks locked away in my alchemy lab.

A few new clients came to discuss terms with me, but most seemed to be waiting for the results of my first discussions. Those representatives had yet to contact me again after our meetings, but that wasn’t too unusual. Even modest forces moved at slow timescales, and the elder councils that needed to approve any major decisio...

Chapter 81 – Life 61, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster Peak

“That’s the last one,” said LiPin, the attendant who guided me through the meetings with representatives from around the kingdom.

“Half a dozen in one day,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.”

“It’s too early to tell. The ones that came today are just here to feel you out. They don’t have the resources to hire the more established a...

Chapter 80 – Life 61, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The Alchemy Office manager’s words about throwing some ingredients together to invent new recipes struck me as an incredibly good idea. I hadn’t done any real experimenting in several lifetimes, and I somewhat missed it.

The Blue Wind Pavilion should have channels to provide me with anything I needed, but they dealt in premium quality goods, and premium goods came with premium prices....

Chapter 79 – Life 61, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After saying my goodbyes with Mei, I found myself in an interesting position. I was alone in an unfamiliar city with no one I could lean on for support. The Blue Wind Pavilion was there, of course, and I could lean on the institution, but I didn’t know anyone in the local branch. I was alone, left to my own devices.

This, I realized, was the position I should be in when I use a temporar...

Chapter 78 – Life 61, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The next day, I met Mei for a private lunch to discuss her plans to become the Water Flower.

“It’s more difficult than I thought,” she said looking concerned. “There are five stages in the selection process. First, they will check that I am astrologically suitable for the position, which I can’t change, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Then they will check my cultivation base and...

Chapter 77 – Life 61, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Mei left on her own to begin preparing for the Flower Blossoming, so I decided to spend the time familiarizing myself with the local alchemy workshop since I was already in the Water District.

The Blue Wind Workshops looked almost identical to a standard Blue Wind Pavilion location. It was an eight-storied pagoda with blue roofs and red walls, in keeping with the brand’s theme. The only...